Group items tagged

in constant touch with guests, building loyalty and sales.

Predictive analytics

Data,

the possibilities are endless

Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is crucial for long-term success in the hospitality industry.

Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is crucial for long-term success in the hospitality industry.

a 'wow' experience in every step of their journey."

Today, technology is enabling the industry to offer guests an immersive, personalized experience like never before, from wayfinding and push notifications based on their location and personal preferences to simplified check-in/checkout and a more 'homelike' experience while they're traveling,

"Mobile apps, combined with loyalty rewards programs, now allow hospitality providers to create a persona-based experience,"

"This speeds check-ins, increasing customer satisfaction, and encourages return visits," Kramer says.

meet guests’ preferences, improve efficiency and increase revenue.

If a door lock sensor, for example, detects that a guest has left his or her room for more than a specified number minutes, energy consumption can be automatically reduced, cutting costs and reducing energy consumption.

predictive analytics can be used for long-term planning or to make rapid, on-the-spot, revenue-enhancing decisions

"Predictive, proactive and actionable data opens the door to new travel experiences, from offering a personal booking experience to a seamless and personalized check-in, to a room specially configured to a guest's preferences, to ensuring that guests never get lost while they are on-site

The LAC method [12,13], the carrying capacity [2,4,8,10,14–18], tourism sustainability indicators [8,10,19], or visitor management models [2,4,11] are some of the theoretical concepts and methods which the protected area visitor management may use to assess the effects of tourism and tourism infrastructure construction and maintenance.

isitor counts can be used to form a model reflecting the dynamics of the destination system, allowing visitor flow simulations

However, the quality of such models is critically dependent on the extent, quality, and readiness of the entry data [21]. The use of real-time data in models of destination systems is not common

Individual tracking methods are based on satellite positioning (e.g., The Global Positioning System known as GPS, or Galileo), active mobile positioning, Bluetooth positioning, Wi-Fi positioning, or indirect monitoring based on geocoded social media, or photo databases

Visitor management of a protected area requires tourism impact estimates depending on its intensity (step 1). Estimates of proportions of various visitor categories depending on days of the week, holidays, weather, or season, or other factors together with expert estimates of specific impacts of these categories of visitors are available

The use of visitor monitoring methods is a common part of visitor management practice, however, monitoring is often not implemented

systematically enough and data is often available with a significant delay (for example, from oine people counters installed in the terrain or when using data from mobile operators), making the assessment of the destination system state in real-time impossible

Correct and ecient data integration requires a systematic and consistent approach. However, a relevant methodology for the utilization of heterogeneous data is not available, which may be one of the reasons why comprehensive visitor monitoring is so rare.

the universally applicable concept of an intelligent tour guide for visitor tracking and for visitor characteristics acquisition are introduced in the results section of the manuscript. The ongoing experimental implementation of the proposed concept is mentioned, and relevant challenges are discussed at the end.

Gradually, five representatives and experts from protected area management, six destination organization experts, and four geopark experts were involved. None of the protected area experts involved in the research had any previous experience with systematic visitor data integration or with using the concept of the intelligent software tour guide.

The brainstorming and focus group were used to raise new ideas, and the Delphi method was used to reach a consensus when needed.

The knowledge gathered from experts served as an input for systems analysis, leading to the design of a computer program—an intelligent tour guide for each involved protected area. Namely, use cases, functional requirements, and other characteristics of the software were identified and discussed.

Because meaningful visitor flow and visitor impact modelling require suciently comprehensive and accurate data [21], systematic exploitation of all available relevant heterogeneous data about visitors (collected by a variety of methods, each with its specific limitations, e.g., visitor profiles, numbers of sold tickets, counts from sensors, space-time curves of individual visitors) is a recommended [36] and cost-e ective approach.

Thus, attention should be paid to the categorization of visitors, including their needs, motivations, limitations, and the resulting patterns of behavior. Such analysis may help to reveal which categories of visitors are desired, e.g., because of their positive impact on the local economy, and which should rather be discouraged from coming

The concept is meant to be generic enough to fit a variety of geographic areas (size, protected features of the local nature, local community , tourism intensity , division of roles in participative management between organizations, etc.)

The intelligent tour guide has to be:

Reliable, accessible, compatible.

Personalized.

Location-sensitive.

Destination-system-aware.

Interactive and collaborative.

Dialogue-wise.

Decently gamified.

Regarding human factors, the potential of individual visitor tracking to provide rich and valuable data may be hindered by the low motivation to participate [21,50,51]. Low participation may limit the usability of the resulting data and negatively a ect the e ects of possible attempts to influence the flow of visitors.

From the technical side, active mobile positioning provides spatially accurate data collected with a sucient sampling rate, for example, compared to passive localization data automatically recorded by mobile operators. However, still, the low satellite signal in rocks or under the canopy of a dense forest in combination with less-sensitive mobile devices may a ect the quality of the data and even the function of the tour guide.

Regarding the interpretation of the resulting data, the bias caused by the selection of participants and the willingness and fitness of members of di erent visitor groups has to be considered. Also, individual tracking may have an unintended influence on visitors’ movement and behavior [49], though the impact and resulting bias is usually acceptably low

Ethically and legally acceptable data collection may require the acquisition of informed consent from each participant.

An inadequate budget can lead to compromises, e.g., in the project management, analysis, or implementation, a ecting the compatibility, reliability, or usability of the program, or the quality and extent of the underlying model and the set of descriptive data.

Experimental verification of the individual tracking method, supplemented by visitors’ feelings and experiences by means of an intelligent tour guide operated in the context of a complex destination application, currently takes place in all involved areas. The application is being carefully designed in harmony with all recommended principles. Namely, a clear distinction is being made between the universal part of the application and area-specific models, configurations, deployment choices, or custom pieces of code.

The research team is looking for other possibilities of verifying the concept presented elsewhere in the Czech Republic and the world. Further research will reveal if the concept is truly generally applicable, as hypothesized, or not.

The POS market is very strong and increasingly profitable with an estimated market value of nearly $15 trillion, up from less than $10 trillion only two years ago

Advantages of POS System

A POS system allows a business to effectively track sales, analyze profits/expenses in detail, maintain inventory, analyze sale trends, as well as allow you to manage employees and other store operations.

POS Software

Item Information

Costs/Expenses

Payment Methods

Stock/Inventory

Purchase/Transaction Records

Employee Time Clocking

Tax/Discount Calculation

POS management software can assist a store manager by constantly collecting analytic data to produce detailed spreadsheet reports, eliminating the need for manually inputting formulas and data into a spreadsheet program.

This helps business owners and managers to determine the best way to maximize sales, determine what inventory restocked, easily and accurately do taxes, and other vital operations.

Web-based POS systems often feature very focused and on-demand customer support than traditional POS software, with more frequent updates and an easier method of delivering them.

Another one of the benefits of POS systems is that POS software is accessible on a number of different platforms. Instead of limiting your transactions and operations to a terminal that is in the store, you can also utilize the POS concurrently with a remote cash register in another location, a computer, a tablet or even a smartphone can all access and work with the software.

Furthermore, a multi-use tablet with a removable external card-reader is an ideal substitute for an expensive card reader unit from a POS developer, which will only serve one basic purpose.

Studies show that Web-based small business POS is becoming more popular, as the increased efficiency and availability of mobile devices make the need for mobile access more crucial, and allow personal devices like smartphones and tablets to double as financial hardware.

The company, NDB, says it can safely utilize this waste to generate power in its nano diamond batteries

It could be used for common mobile devices, medical products, satellites and could provide energy in hard-to-reach locations or remote areas where routine maintenance would be difficult.

The basic principle behind the concept is not actually new. As NDB's chief operating officer Mohammed Irfan explained: "Using radioisotopes as a source for energy is not new

computing is becoming the default option for many apps: software vendors are increasingly offering their applications as services over the internet rather than standalone products as they try to switch to a subscription model

for many customers location of their services and data remains a key issue

he infrastructure to support cloud computing now accounts for more than a third of all IT spending worldwide,

global spending on cloud services will reach $260bn this year up from $219.6bn

Research by Oracle found that two thirds of IaaS users said using online infrastructure makes it easier to innovate, had cut their time to deploy new applications and services and had significantly cut on-going maintenance costs.

This may allow companies to avoid large increases in IT spending which would traditionally be seen with new projects

ertainly many companies remain concerned about the security of cloud services, although breaches of security are rare. Ho

c1loud-based systems are hosted by a vendor’s server and give hoteliers a single, scalable system that’s flexible and easily updated.

But hoteliers are increasingly looking for better service and more integrated technology options, and factors like these are just some of the benefits that cloud-based software can provide.

next two to three years hoteliers are expected to invest seven to eight percent more on cloud technology

can provide updated data in real time.

has the ability to host a property management system (PMS) from a remote location, allowing hoteliers to access their property data from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

1c1loud-based systems are hosted by a vendor’s server and give hoteliers a single, scalable system that’s flexible and easily updated.

eliminates the need for hoteliers to be physically present at their property to be able to check in on daily management operations.

What does managed WiFi mean? With managed WiFi, you outsource your wireless network to a third-party vendor.

Hotel owners switch to a managed WiFi service to preserve time and financial resources while providing a secure and reliable guest WiFi network. Managed solutions offer features, like reporting options and capital planning assistance, that support your current and longterm goals. 

In short, your managed WiFi network runs seamlessly in the background. Your IT team isn’t overburdened with infrastructure improvements. And management has access to advanced analytics and reporting features to adjust bandwidth and predict future needs. 

Enterprises turn to managed service providers for their “skilled human resources, infrastructure, and industry certifications.”

With managed WiFi services, your provider develops a secure wireless network and monitors it 24/7/365. You pay a monthly fee, which helps you avoid unexpected expenses.

For many hoteliers, the best part of a managed WiFi service is that you can simply call for help. Your provider remotely evaluates your system. They perform updates, identify hazards, and work with you to troubleshoot minor issues. From afar, a managed WiFi provider can even boost a nearby signal as a temporary patch during a device outage. For challenging problems, a certified technician visits your location and resolves the issue. 

The system learns, tracks and adapts to your guest and property needs without forgoing essential security and privacy protocols.

top managed WiFi providers also offer options like:  Conference management features handle VLAN configurations, bandwidth shaping, extra ports, and even online scheduling and resource guides for events.  24/7/365 customer support services assist your hotel staff and hotel guests for positive experiences with your high-speed wireless network. 

It no longer makes sense to employ a full staff to manage your hotel’s wireless network. Instead, partner with a reputable managed WiFi service provider dedicated to the hospitality industry.

) Target ads to domestic agents without travel restrictions

3) Use two versions of creative in your ads

) Start GDS Media for future travel dates only

Hold rates and utilize added amenities

Retail model This is the traditional model, ie. how you would work with a retail or traditional travel agent.

Merchant model This model applies to third party service providers that connect you to retail travel agents (by integrating with a GDS) and online travel agents.

Opaque model In this model, your guests don’t know they’re staying at your specific property until after they’ve made the booking.

Small accommodation providers can benefit greatly from using a GDS to connect to retail travel agents and corporate buyers. However, we highly recommend that you steer clear of the merchant model, because you would be paying commission to both the third party service provider and the OTA.

Option 2: Channel Manager

On average, small hotels can cut the commissions they pay in half by using an all-in-one solution

In this kind of business relationship, it’s much better to retain full control of your rates and inventory

In the distribution landscape, Global Distribution Systems (GDS) are just one of the many players involved in selling your rooms to a world of travelers. They are one of the oldest kinds of distributors in the industry, so it’s important that you understand how you can work with them effectively.

A GDS doesn’t work exclusively for accommodation providers – it does the same for airlines, activities, and car rental companies.

Your rooms are sold through all channels connected through the GDS e.g. traditional travel agents. Whoever sells your room earns a standard commission. Your guest pays you, then you pay your agent. An easy way to understand this model is if you think about how you would work with your local brick and mortar travel agency, that caters to walk-in customers. This is the default model used upon connecting with a GDS.

In this model, you would work with online travel agents (OTAs) like Booking.com via the third party service provider. An OTA sells rooms on your behalf, allowing your guests to find and select your hotel, check your availability, and make a booking.

However, this is very costly. As they are a third party provider of GDS services, you would not only pay commission to the OTA (a percentage of each booking), but you would also be paying the third party service provider a commission for use of the system (usually $10-$12 per reservation).

The only difference is, they won’t guarantee it (there is less of an incentive to sell you because there is no additional commission for them), and they will de-emphasise your listing (by placing it at the end of the list, hiding images, hiding room rate, and other strategies).

You set up several rates (usually 25%-45% less than retail rate), selling your rooms based on bids that guests make based on location, star rating, and other attributes. For example, Priceline uses a bidding system, and Hotwire allows guests to make bookings based on discounted rates.

GDSes are great for tapping into the corporate travel market – however, it is being used more for other types of travel than for accommodation.

Hybrid events feature a mix of live and virtual components. In this model, a number of people may be present at a physical location, while the audience at large attends the event remotely. Hybrid events have several advantages: they may attract sponsors who would not have otherwise been drawn to a live event, and if needed, they can be easily modified and turned into virtual events.

Professional events have several key functions: bring brand awareness and revenue for the organiser, sharing up-to-date information, and networking.

With the current technology, anything from scientific sessions to workshops and exhibitions can be delivered virtually.

Do not overlook the social aspect of meetings. Remember that virtual meetings should fulfil two critical functions: circulating information and providing a space for professionals to network.

Things like building websites, increasing event registrations, and email promotion are all made possible thanks to event technology.

While some event tools require manual data entry, others might automatically capture information for you. Some tools might perform competing tasks while other might actually work better together.

consider your business goals

Venue sourcing tools are any event technology program that allows event planners to search, browse, and filter through venue options

There are many tools for finding event venues and spaces but here are some options to consider:

EventUP allows organizers to directly message venue owners. They have a wide selection ranging from corporate event venues to private dinner party spaces.

Your event website is an important digital portal for prospects and attendees to get acquainted with your upcoming affair. Important details, registration and ticketing options, and additional marketing materials are all located here. These tools help you create this important piece of your event puzzle.

Tools for event registration offer users different ways to increase and facilitate attendee conversions. Some event registration tools specialize specifically in event registration but can integrate with other event technologies.

Event agenda tools help attendees learn about, select, customize and navigate their activities during your event.

If you want to drive people to your event, you will need a strong event promotion strategy. It also helps to have the help of event technology that was built just for this purpose.

email list segmentation and social media leveraging that turns attendees into brand ambassadors.

Getting feedback from event stakeholders is made possible with the help of live event surveys and polls.

Software integrations are what ultimately create a seamless workflow for your event planning process. There are three main types: open API integrations, native integrations, and third-party integrations.

s the competition within the event technology industry has grown, so too has the importance of providing easy to use tools for event marketers.

event ROI (51% according to the 2018 Event Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report). This means that working towards event ROI clarity is a high priority task for many planners.

In addition to increasing labor productivity by 40%, organizers will be able to use artificial intelligence to efficiently allocate and spend their time.

Choose wisely.

Consider market trends

Sort through the noise.

Virginia Western Community College

Unfortunately, the first generation of beacons had a number of practical integration problems.

Imagine tourists receiving notifications about the nearest landmarks as they travel around London or shoppers seeing a list of a shop’s best offers as they walk past the store. These are the kind of opportunities beacons make possible and there’s a lot of reason to be excited about this technology.

sports brand uses more than 40 beacons across a 41,150 square-feet space in the famous Nanjing East Road shopping district to create a seamless shopping experience. The beacons allow customers to pay for goods using Instant Checkout spaces and collect reserved items from lockers at multiple locations.

In a practical sense, this means developing apps with beacon integration quickly becomes unmanageable and this is one of the most important solutions Google Beacon Platform provides.

As with any kind of marketing strategy, define what your goals are and then determine how you can use the tools at your disposal to achieve them.

For loyalty a combination of beacons, qr codes, NFC and geofencing may give you best results

How companies use proximity marketing?

Certain use cases for proximity marketing can work without a mobile app. If you are planning to use QR Codes or NFC Tags then you do not need a special mobile app for it.

The PCI Security Standards Council claims that since March, malicious virus-related reports are up 475%. The reason for the uptick is that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of rapid changes to the payment-card data environment. In addition, 41% of small businesses have said they’ve suffered breaches costing more than $50,000 to fix.

Contactless payment is one of the big changes within the payment data environment. Several restaurant companies – from chains to independents – are offering it because it reduces customers' physical interaction with the restaurant's POS system. As part of this move, some businesses have eliminated credit-card PIN numbers.

Eliot says malicious email is usually the easiest way for cybercriminals to access your networks. The emails typically show up as urgent requests for sensitive information, often pretending to be from the Small Business Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the intended victim types in his or her credentials and clicks on a specific link or downloads an attachment, criminals are in.

Anyone looking for easy-to-implement security tips can try these six to start. Reduce areas where payment-card data is stored. The best way to protect against a data breach is to avoid storing any card information at all. With many small operators offering curbside pickup and accepting payment over the phone instead of through face-to-face transactions, it’s important they train employees not to write down payment card details. Instead, have them enter numbers directly into a secure terminal. Use strong passwords. Using weak and default passwords is one of the leading causes of payment data breaches among businesses. Effective passwords must be strong and updated regularly. The most recent guidance is: the longer, the better. Think of it almost as a “passphrase” rather than a password. Use it in the form of a sentence, but mix in different characters within the phrase. It’s much harder to break a long passphrase than it is a short, complex password. Weak and vendor default passwords often result in small business data breaches. Also, don’t repeat your passwords. Update your software often. Criminals look for outdated software to exploit flaws in unpatched systems. Timely installations of security patches are crucial to minimizing the risk of a breach. Whenever updates are available, use them. They will improve performance and close out some of the vulnerabilities cybercriminals are searching for. Enable two-factor authentication. It's so important for restaurateurs, especially where their POS systems or any of their sensitive databases are concerned, to have two-factor or multi-factor authentication enabled. If an instance where credentials are stolen occurs, there will be a second layer of verification the operator can rely on to potentially reduce the chances that information will be breached. Segment your networks. If you are going to store payment data, make sure your POS system has its own separate, secure network. Do not store sensitive documents on public cloud services such as Google Docs or DropBox. If you’re going to store sensitive documents, house them in an encrypted, locked down location.   Be hyper-vigilant. Criminals are going to try to take advantage of this pandemic situation as much as possible. You can protect yourself by not giving out sensitive information, especially within unsolicited emails. Don’t click on links you’re not expecting and do everything in your power to protect all sensitive information.

Automated systems can be limited and therefore the personalization and “special requests” that can be organized between event planner and venue as part of a long-lasting relationship might be lost

This is a fantastic opportunity for event professionals as it makes event themes limitless and allows the location to be designed around the event rather

than the other way around.

Event planners will also be able to use this information to personally plan itineraries to the precise likes and dislikes of individual guests and have more accurate data for destination events

The communication platform makes it easy to manage maintenance requests, send out news and updates, organize community events, and provide property managers a new revenue stream by promoting utilities, cable, bundles, and more.